There was nothing particularly unusual or strange about this spring morning. The ancient tunnels smelt and felt the same as they had done for a millenia. Dank and musky. Sniff, sniff, scratch, scratch, drip, drip, Lillyheart new every inch, nook and cranny of her hidden subterranean kingdom. She used her impeccable sense of smell and pin-point hearing to navigate her secluded world of darkness. Well, at least it was secluded until she found a pup whimpering in the darkness just over a year ago.

At first, she had been shocked to find a lone baby this far underground. Until she realized that she had wandered too close to the surface for comfort, a stone’s throw away from the world of the ‘living’. At first she had raised the hackles along her spine and was about to bite the boy in his miserable face! She was dead! She was happy to remain here in the dark! And then she saw his sweet little face. Her cold heart thawed that day. Slowly, the ghost white hairs along her spine had fallen along with her tensed jaw line. Her eerie orange eyes stared at him unblinking as they focused on the first face she had seen in over a decade.

The whelp whimpered at her. And then cried out for his mother. V’s eyes trailed down to a nearby boulder where she saw… Well, let’s just say it wasn’t a pretty sight. Some dumb bitch had built her den in a cave fault-line and paid the ultimate price for that mistake. Predatory eyes flick back to the surviving welp and he visibly flinched beneath her piercing gaze. It had been a long time since he had seen fear and it awoke an instinct in him that he had not felt for many moons, the desire to rip and tear out another wolf’s throat. She clenches her teeth one more time. Coiling her skull back into her spine she prepared to lash out at him like a viper. This world is cruel and dangerous! And without a mother how would this brat survive? There was something about him that made her sick to the pit of her stomach. She would grant him a swift and merciful end! Just as her “Devil” had trained her to do, so many years ago...

“Mother?” He cracked and whimpered. And she froze. Looking down to the white paws sticking out from under the nearest pile of rocks, she twigged what had happened. That corpse could only be a few days old, a week at most, and this … yearling? His black forehead came into focus, his fur was mated with thick, crusted blood. He must have been knocked out cold since the roof collapsed. A resigned sigh fell from her black painted lips. The boy whined, and started to lick at her muzzle and cheeks. At first she did not move to his warm touch. As if she had been glassified. “Fine,” her voice falls from her mouth in a whisper, “follow me, I’ll show you out.” Since that day she had been the boys mother. Her intention was to take him to the surface and leave him to his fate. But he quickly (and literally) grew on her, like a tick! And she couldn’t simply abandon him.

White ears flick and twitch to the sound of a gentle hum and rumbling coming from behind her. “DeathScythe?” She gently coos, “Is that you?” She pauses from her foraging and waits for a reply. Naturally, at this age he wants to explore by himself but it doesn’t half scare her to death or anything when he vanishes for hours at a time!
“Don’t tell me your stuck in a side tunnel again you stupid boy …” Her words are cut off abruptly as she turns her head to the sight of a wall of white cascading water rushing towards her. In an instant she’s swept off her paws and forced up the tunnels.

She tumbles and turns like a lost brick in a washing machine in the middle of a tornado. Instinctively she pulls her legs as close to her body as she can. Her head, shoulders, spine, hips and tail are all thrust and dragged against boulders and loose rocks. Finally she emerges into the surface and gasps for life. Filling her lungs with precious air.

Dazzled by the blinding lights of the sun shining through the canopy, it takes her a few moments to realize that she’s been washed out of her secret kingdom and down into the Ruieze Fields! She’s too far from the bank! And the current is too strong for her lithe legs to fight against. She can feel the undercurrents wanting to drag her down, down, down! Deeper down! Back to the place of her birth! Back to the darkest depths of hell! Wouldn’t that be one f-ed up family reunion!

She gasps and winces in shock and pain as the river forces her battered body against the rough bark of a fallen tree trunk. Resting the side of her delicate face against the grainy surface she shudders and pants. The pain! F-! The pain! Her eyelids fall and she feels the blackness of unconsciousness clawing at the edges of her mind. The faces of the past are calling to her to come back home. And the scary thing is, she wants to go with them! F-This world! F-her existence! No one wanted him, her, it, this fleshbound abomination here anyway! No-one came looking for her! No one shed any tears for her!

Then a new, younger face becomes crystal clear in her mind. “DeathScythe Hell!?” His name erupts from her mouth like a newborn crying out into the cold world for the first time. “Where are you? Where’s my baby!” She screams frantically looking around at the nearest river shore and the debris surrounding her.